animation problem

[Shiner 2]

We have FTSV ME 5.1 and are using a 1769-L23 Processor. I am trying to use the three blade fan from the library, which lists system\BlinkFast as an example of animation. I wasnt this fan to simply run if the input from my drive is active. I have tried various expressions and have had no luck. Any suggestions would be helpful. The latest expression was if {tag} == 1 then system\blinkfast else 0 the behavior I am getting is that everything works the way I would like in demo and then in runtime when I trigger the input the shading goes away and I am left with just the outline of the fan, stuck in a 180 of its original position. Any chance the blinkrate is too fast for the screen I have designed, it is a color 10" panelview, but I do have a good amount of graphics thanks for the help, have browsed and searched for help on this with no luck. Edited 16 May 2011 by Shiner

[dmargineau 6]

I've never had good luck using System HMI tags for object animation/visibility, especially when the application requires a substantial amount of bandwidth. If you want to implement a "two frames" object animation, within the CompactLogix Tag Database, I'd set up two free running timers with a Preset of 500 which, via simple logic, would alternatively turn each other On/Off. The result of the ladder logic will be the two .TT bits of the two timers becoming sequentially true every half a second. Then, within your FTVS application, you could use the state of each .TT tag to "make Visible" each frame of the "fan pic". This way you'll have 500 ms alternating visibility for each frame. Depending of your system's communications rate, you might have to "tweak" the Preset of the two timers in order to reach acceptable results, however, once set, it should be okay until further development!...

[Shiner 2]

considering I wanted to do three fan animations and one part moving on conveyor (linear motion) that would be alot of timers for something that you would think is simple. AB couldn't put a function in there that did that like eaton?

[Ken Roach 194]

I don't think the problem is with the animation, I think it's with the tag definition or the Shortcut to the data source. When FTView cannot get the data value for a Direct Reference or the assigned address of an HMI Tag for an object that uses Animation, it shows the object "wireframe". The Design/Local shortcut is used for tag browsing in FTView Studio, and is used when you use the "Play" button to test a single Display. When you create a Runtime or use the "Running Man" icon to perform a test Runtime, FTView Station uses the Runtime/Target shortcut definition. Are other tag references working correctly in this project ? Try creating a Numeric Display referencing just that specific Tag syntax. Remember that curly brackets surround direct references to a Shortcut and an RSLogix 5000 tag, not references to HMI Tags. {[shortcut]Tagname}

[Shiner 2]

Thanks for the idea, I doublechecked my syntax but I am selecting the tag right from the editor....I do have other working animations, verified by toggling bits in the program, that create color changes in objects. It just seems the rotation of the fans will not work properly. Does AB have a clock/alternator built in like Eaton does? that would work simpler than cascading timers which I hear people trying to do repeatedly.

[Michael Lloyd 85]

Unless im missing something I do animations like that all the time. You don't need scripting. Just bit + blinkfast. I'm on a very slow satellite connection right now. When I get to a decent connection I'll post a screenshot of the config that I use. Edited 17 May 2011 by Michael Lloyd

[Ken Roach 194]

That exact syntax works perfectly for me when animating the Rotation property of the "Group47" part of the three-bladed fan from the library, both in Test and in Runtime modes. Make sure you're not attempting to animate the whole three-bladed fan object, "Group48". Your description of "works in test but not in runtime" still sounds to me like this particular tag is somehow mis-addressed; I would create a Numeric Display and copy-paste the exact expression into it, to see if that value is invalid during runtime. Adding the BOOL tag to BlinkFast works with negative logic, and multiplying the BOOL by BlinkFast works too. A wireframe always means that the expression or tag can't be resolved. The FactoryTalk Diagnostic Log will show you that too, as an "Expression contains a tag that has an error" message.

[Shiner 2]

Thx again Ken you have been quite helpful. The only difference I see is that I am using a fan and the label is propeller 3. The point I should have made initially is that when I first set this up and tested, I had rotation. This was using the default settings on the item. Once I tried to modify them my problems began so I do not think it is a matter of selecting the wrong object. I will try your syntax suggestions and see what that does for me. Can AB make the language in their help feature any more unclear!

[rdrast 3]

If you are using a digital tag to trigger the animation, then don't use a comparison at all. Just use: ({MyHMI\MyTag} AND {system\blinkfast}). Also, try using {system\blinkslow} instead of fast. Depending on what is going on in the background on the runtime, blinkfast may be too fast for the animation.

[Shiner 2]

Thanks again for all your replies. Turns out in my haste I had a backslash-frontslash inversion issue (mr. thumbs) causing the tag to be invalid. The editor did not catch that it was invalid. Everything works fine. Also, am I the only one that thinks the background patterns available stink.